A blog that went from discussing about the writing life to reviews of movies

I recently read a blog post a friend of mine had wrote yesterday (Monday December 20th) which you could find here, where she wrote her own mission statement for the new year. I liked the idea and wanted to write my own 2011 Mission Statement for I could look back on and try to keep the promises I shall make to myself. So here goes it. If it interests you, give it a try. Make sure you link it in the comments below so everyone could check it out!

My name is Mindy Crump and in 2011 I would like nothing more than to be myself again. I have had some pretty rough few years, mostly in silence, and I am beginning to want the old me back. Now I know I cannot possibly have the complete old me, but bits and pieces would suffice.

I would like to grow more comfortable with myself. I promise I will try to not back down from a challenge no matter how embarassing or frightening it might be (as long as it's safe of course). When things are not going well I promise to write about it, even if all I want to do is stay in bed. Critism is not my friend. I do not handle it too well. I promise in 2011 I shall work my tail off at defending myself a little bit more. It's about time I get some backbone.

Most importantly, I promise never to give up on myself or on others. I just want to be happy.

Around this time, I begin to think about what I have accomplished throughout this year and begin to think about what I would like to accomplish in the New Year. Lately I have become quite anal about this and have created quite a few lists and charts.

I have three main goals next year to work on which include:

Opening my own Web Design Business -In 2011 I want it to be the year I finally make this come true. I have been thinking of having a bit of a niche of creating websites for authors which would tie together both my passions; writing and designing.

Sell a Script - I have planned 6 months of the year all devoted to Screenwriting. I would love nothing more than to sell a script but the biggest goal before this is to definitely send queries and pitches out to production companies and/or agents.

Publish a Novel/Short Story - This year I took one step closer to achieving this goal of mine when I sent in my short story to a local publisher. Unfortunately it was rejected but I was told by the publisher to try sending that short story to fiction magazines. The other six months are devoted to this goal.

These might seem like big goals to try to accomplish in just one year, but after the year I just had I am starting to have faith in myself that it could be possible to achieve anything I set my sights upon.

Throughout this year I have mentioned challenging oneself over and over again. Next year will be no different as I personally have a few monthly events to try out. Perhaps you might try them out with me:

FAWM also known as February Album Writing Month. This is where you write 14 songs in a month

NaNoEdMo also known as National Novel Editing Month. Many people already know about this one where you edit 50 hours in a month

NEPMo (National Epic Poetry Month) This is where you write 5,000 lines of poetry in a month which is simple enough if you write poetry as it is.

SoFoBoMo which I just love saying over and over again. This is Solo Photo Book Month. I am very excited to give this a try. This is where you create a 31 page or more photo book with photos you take during the month

National Blog Posting Month. Perhaps you already know about this. I am definitely going to try it out. This is where a blogger like myself, chooses any month during the year and blogs every single day during that month. Perhaps I might try it twice.

Okay so now I have been dying to ask you all what challenges are you taking on in the New Year? They don't have to pertain to just writing. I know I would like to challenge myself to get over the fear of spiders.

I hope you've been having a great two weeks and I hope you did not miss me too much! Though it has been six days since November and Nano has finished up I wanted to let you know that I fortunately completed this year's National Novel Writing Month! WOOT WOOT!

I am very happy about writing my 50,000 words in a month but have come to the realization that my story is not even half way done yet. So I must reach deep down inside of me for momentum and complete this really rough first draft as soon as I can.

With that I would like to apologize for no post last week. My muse decided she had enough of Hawaii and moved back in with me. We decided to celebrate and have a movie night.

On another note if you done Nanowrimo, I really would love to read any excerpts of yours. If you put it on your blog, feel free to leave a link to it and I'll make sure to give it a read and leave a comment if you like. I find it's nice to have show and tell with other writers, especially when I see how excited or even how disappointed the writer is. It is crazy how much expectations we put on ourselves. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to our own talents, but do we not have those talents for a reason?

On a completely different route, remember I told you about my pitch back in October that I did with Muse It Up Publishing? I finally received an email back from them rejecting my poor short story. That is alright though, they were gracious enough to give me feedback and told me that it would suit a magazine, which I am planning on looking into. I have always been positive that if I ever received my first rejection letter from a publisher that I would be crushed. It really was not that bad at all. It made me want to do better. That's a good thing right?

With all that said I would like to leave you all with a 5 minutes video of it snowing somewhere I do not know. It has been snowing here all day! Gotta love December/winter.